The GER Class N31 was a class of eighty-two
0-6-0
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of no leading wheels, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles and no trailing wheels. This was the most common wheel arrangemen ...
steam locomotives designed by
James Holden for the
Great Eastern Railway
The Great Eastern Railway (GER) was a pre-grouping British railway company, whose main line linked London Liverpool Street to Norwich and which had other lines through East Anglia. The company was grouped into the London and North Eastern R ...
. Eighteen passed to the
London and North Eastern Railway
The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) was the second largest (after LMS) of the " Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain. It operated from 1 January 1923 until nationalisation on 1 January 1948. At th ...
(LNER) at the
1923 grouping
The Railways Act 1921 (c. 55), also known as the Grouping Act, was an Act of Parliament enacted by the British government and intended to stem the losses being made by many of the country's 120 railway companies, by "grouping" them into four la ...
and received the LNER classification J14.
History
These goods locomotives had cylinders, driving wheels, and a boiler. Eighty-one were built at
Stratford Works
Stratford Works was the locomotive-building works of the Great Eastern Railway situated at Stratford, London, England. The original site of the works was located in the 'V' between the Great Eastern Main Line and the Stratford to Lea Bridge rou ...
between 1893 and 1898.
Table of orders and numbers
Class 127
In addition, when the
Class 127 locomotive was rebuilt from compound to simple in 1895, it was then included into Class N31.
Performance
They were not particularly successful locomotives. Although nicknamed ''Swifts'', they were sluggish locomotives, due to the placement of the valve chests underneath the cylinders.
Withdrawals
Withdrawals started in 1908, and by the end of 1922, only eighteen were left in service. The LNER allocated numbers 7000 higher than the locomotives' GER numbers, but withdrawals continued, and by 1925 the class was extinct.
References
*
External links
N31 Class 0-6-0 1891-1898— Great Eastern Railway Society
The Class J14 (GER Class N31) 0-6-0 Locomotives— LNER Encyclopedia
{{LNER Locomotives
N31
0-6-0 locomotives
Railway locomotives introduced in 1893
Standard gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain
Freight locomotives
Scrapped locomotives